Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

The Jewish Taliban

It seems both Israel and some American communities are having to deal with increasingly aggressive Ultra-Orthodox Jews who, like their reactionary Muslim counterparts, are deeply misogynistic and want women to be covered up and turned into second class citizens.

Over recent months, women’s faces have disappeared from billboards across the city amid mounting pressure applied by the powerful ultra-orthodox lobby, who find the female image offensive.

Several advertisers have erased female models from their posters in Jerusalem. Elsewhere in Israel, the winter campaign of Israeli clothing brand Honigman features a model cosily dressed in winter knits. In the capital, the woman’s head has been removed from the image, leaving just her arm and a handbag.

Companies that do not fall in line with the standards of the extreme ultra-orthodox have frequently fallen victim to direct action. Across Jerusalem, female figures have been blacked out of billboards with spray-paint, or vandalised with graffiti branding the image “illegal”. Other posters are simply torn down…

It is not just secular Israelis that have been moved to protest. Members of the Haredi ultra-orthodox community themselves are reporting a rise in assaults on women. One orthodox website reported this week that three orthodox girls had been physically attacked in Jerusalem for dressing immodestly.

The secular mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, is fighting against these actions and has instructed the police to take steps to prevent this kind of thing from happening:

On Sunday, Barkat wrote a letter to district police commander Niso Shaham in which he said: “We must make sure that those who want to advertise [with] women’s images in the city can do so without fear of vandalism and defacement of billboards or buses showing women.”

Police have confirmed an increase in vandalism on the borders of Jerusalem’s closed ultra-orthodox neighbourhoods. Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police would be stepping up patrols to prevent further acts of hooliganism and ensure it is investigated.

Rosenfeld added that despite being pelted with stones, police officers made several arrests in the orthodox Meah Shearim neighbourhood last week.

But activists claim the battle over Jerusalem’s billboards is only one manifestation of an alarming trend towards gender segregation across Israel driven by the religious right.

When reactionary Muslims engage in this behavior, they are called terrorists (and rightly so). Will America’s religious right speak out against the same behavior by reactionary Jews, here or in Israel? Not likely.

Comments

When you have pages of texts that tell you how evil it is to even look upon arayos (women who are on their periods–strangers are assumed to be), that to even see a pinkie of one is the equivalent of looking at their vagina, what else can you expect?

Even better, the Israeli UO refuse to serve in the IDF. These are the people causing most of the problems with illegal settlements and provocative actions, and they refuse to even acknowledge the legitimacy of the Israeli government.

Several Israeli friends tell me that sentiment against the UO is rising, and a common feeling is that if they refuse to defend Israel, they can leave Israel. For good.

In Haredi Judaism are attitudes that oppose employment in favor of Torah study. These are particularly prevalent in parts of Israel and have angered the nation’s secular Jewish population.[1] The main justification for not working is that the most important value bestowed in Judaism is the study of Torah, and full-time devotion to Torah study requires that one not work.[2]

Restrictions opposing work apply more to men than to women. Haredi Jews following these restrictions allow women to work, but with restrictions.[3]

About 60% of Haredi Jews in Israel presently voluntarily do not participate in the labor market in order to pursue full-time Torah study and are receiving meager government stipends for the cost of living. Israeli law provides military exemptions to those who pursue full-time Torah study, while at the same time, prohibits them from working.[1] However, some Haredi Jews do wish they can work, but find cultural barriers stand in the way of employment.[2]

I see the rise in mysogeny as an ugly symptom of a positive shift. So much of the uprising in the ME has women’s rights as a major focus. The Fundies of Abraham see us coming and do what all good authoritarians do….go on an emotional freakout

gridlore (#8) – “Several Israeli friends tell me that sentiment against the UO is rising, and a common feeling is that if they refuse to defend Israel, they can leave Israel. For good.”
‘Oh, where would they go? What would they do?’ :)

More seriously, I wonder how christian fundies would react to a second diaspora? Would Israel still be a Jewish state? Would they be scouring their holy books looking for wholly new eschatological paradigm?
It’s an interesting premise for scifi novella (but it’ll never happen).
Dingo

Well, they are just getting a form of welfare. That should be enough incentive for work (at least for non-religious people). And I would hope that I could get many of these children out of this kind of life.

Is there a real threat that a majority of the population wouldn’t work? Okay, I want to hear your proposal how to deal with this problem. How do you think they would react to force or end of all transfers?

Are male religious extremists that way because they obsess so hard (sorry) about sex that a woman’s face drives them insane with lust, or do men who go insane with lust when they see a woman’s face become religious extremists?

Raven, my proposal would be to force their children into public school (or cut their welfare if they protest). I guess the problem would go away without anyone actually suffering (except hurt feelings).